There Are Alternatives

Migrant children are often seeking asylum, family reunification or fleeing from violence and poverty.

While waiting for their status to be resolved, children need States to provide migration systems that are sensitive to their needs as children.

All children have to be treated as children, to be free, to be looked after in the community and with their parents.

At the campaign, we advocate (with the world’s eminent experts on child rights) for alternatives to detention to be used by States to achieve their international obligations.

An alternative to detention is any law, policy or practice that allows people to live freely in a community setting while waiting for their immigration status to be resolved.

When most people think about immigration detention they think of a physical place, such as a prison where people are locked up.

But an alternative to detention is rarely one place – in fact for them to work effectively, a whole array of systems need to be working together. So a law may be an alternative to detention, and a foster system that allows asylum seekers to live in the community may also be an alternative to detention. Together, these alternatives provide the best care for children, a vast improvement on the known harms of placing children in immigration detention.

Find out more

If you are interested in finding out more about alternatives to detention for children, we’ve developed this short online training course. In just 15 minutes, you’ll have a deep understanding of successful alternatives to detention – and you’ll be ready to answer those tough questions as you campaign for change